Can I add fresh sap to sap that is boiling? And can I boil some down partially, let it set, and add more sap later? Does it need to be refrigerated?
Not expecting much getting into it this late, and my tress are not ideal (2 silver, and one norway) but it is what I have in my yard.
Shouldn’t be a issue adding sap to boiling sap. Thats typically how we do it to boil down a 30 to 40 gallon batch. Just keep adding.
You can start and stop to. Dont think its the most favorable way to process sap but for those with limited time its what we got to do.
We refrigerate opened jars of syrup. Thats about it.
We have 50 taps out about 45 minutes Northeast of Duluth. 90 gallons for the year so far, has been cooking all night and expect to finish about two and a half gallons out of this. Constantly adding fresh sap to boiling sap. once done I will leave it in a refrigerator in a bucket for a couple weeks to settle out all the sediment. Much much easier than filtering.
I add sap as I boil as well, I refrigerate if I have to stop mid process but I do not think it is necessary. Going to start boiling 50 gallons tomorrow.
We are expecting the trees to run pretty good the next few days just north of the twin cities. 25 at night, mid 40s for the day and sunshine make those trees go nuts. Going to start cooking sap again tonight. 35 gallons of sap produces 1.5 gallons of syrup for us. We got 4.5 gallons of syrup so far this year. At one point this year I didn’t think we where going to hit 4 gallons finished. Looking now like we might hit 7 gallons. Our best year yet.
Should be some fat sacks of sap this weekend.
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Sounds like you have some sweet trees Mike, I’m not far off on sugar content, I am hoping for 2+ gallons of finished so I can hand out to relatives and friends and still have leftover for the remainder of the year.
Our highs over in the lakes area are a little on the colder side this weekend (high of 32 Saturday but will hit 40 sunday) but the rest of the week looks very promising.
Happy boiling.
Well this is quickly getting out of hand. Looks like I am on pace to get 20+ gallons from my yard, and I have no idea how much has run over the top of my jugs. Emergency trips to get more buckets for storage.
Just use the bathtub.
Been there when just about any container we got is holding sap. We got food grade plastic buckets. Used job site water jugs. Have used coolers in the past. We just try to make sure any containers are food grade.
I’m gonna have over 30 gallons by today – any idea how long this will take to boil in a turkey fryer with the tall bucket? Is this a morning and all day project or can I do it in the afternoon?
And do I blast it on high while I am adding sap and getting rid of bulk?
I also read something about foam – will I need something to address this?
With that little of surface area, you will be very lucky to get it done in a very full day.
Just use the bathtub.
Been there when just about any container we got is holding sap. We got food grade plastic buckets. Used job site water jugs. Have used coolers in the past. We just try to make sure any containers are food grade.
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We ran into this, this weekend! Both 55 gallon drums were full, then the 60qt cooler was full, then the 120qt Salmon cooler was getting full! Started our boiling early Saturday morning. Everything was going good until we went out and collected what was in the buckets on Saturday.. Holy moly did the trees run! Another 30 gallons of sap in 24 hours! We boiled down about 170 gallons of sap into about 4 gallons of ready to finish syrup. Got one pail in the fridge till next weekend and we’ll finish it with the rest of what we get this week. On track for about 6 or so gallons of syrup! The most for us to date. Last year we had about 4.5 gallons with the goofy spring we had.
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With that little of surface area, you will be very lucky to get it done in a very full day.
X2.. If possible, find a couple stainless pans and put them on the grill. The more surface area the better!! We did our first year in a turkey fryer too. Went through a LOT of propane and it took quite a while. If its all you have, it’ll work, just takes a while longer.
I’m gonna have over 30 gallons by today – any idea how long this will take to boil in a turkey fryer with the tall bucket? Is this a morning and all day project or can I do it in the afternoon?
And do I blast it on high while I am adding sap and getting rid of bulk?
I also read something about foam – will I need something to address this?
That’s going to be more than a one day project with just one pot/pan on a turkey fryer. Its all about surface area as the others have indicated, so get as many more pots and pans going as you can. You can get 6″ deep stainless steel pans that are approximately 12″ x 24″ x 6″ off of amazon for around $20.
One thing you can do to help speed up the process is pre-heat the sap before you add it to your boil. If you add too much cold sap (35-40 degree as you should be storing it) to your boil, you are going to lose your boil each time you add it and take a few minutes to get back. That lost time over as many gallons as you have really adds up and slows down the process. There are many different ways to preheat your sap.
What I find effective and easy involves filing the bath tub with as hot as water as you can get. Then put your food safe 5 gallon buckets that are filled with ~35 degree sap into the bathtub an hour before you are going to add it to the boil. The buckets of sap sitting in hot water is a very effective pre-heating method. I’ve found I can get the sap pre-heated to around 115 degrees doing it this way.
You can get 6″ deep stainless steel pans that are approximately 12″ x 24″ x 6″ off of amazon for around $20.
Go on amazon and search for steam pans. Here’s the one I bought this year, I use it on our turkey fryer. This is my first year, but I would say that it boils roughly one gallon an hour. I am curious if I were to put it on my 4 burner grill, it would cover 3 burners, and it may heat better for me than the turkey fryer, where the flame only hits the middle portion of the pan.
Thanks for all the advice! I will use my much wider fish pan instead of the turkey pot. I plan to try the tub heating for buckets, or just heat the turkey pot on the stove. I am also looking to borrow another fryer.
Do i need to watch the temp at all or just let her rip until it gets thicker?
Do i need to watch the temp at all or just let her rip until it gets thicker?
The temp is not much of a concern until you don’t have any sap left to pour in. Keep the heat rolling! If you watch the boil you will notice it starting to get thicker. That’s when you want start watching it and be careful not to “burn” it.
Went out again yesterday afternoon and collected sap again. To my surprise, almost all 20 buckets were full!! Another 80 gallons since Sunday. Going to let them sit till Friday and pull them. Hopefully start the boiling Friday morning. Now if the rain can hold off so I can get it all boiled down this weekend that’d be wonderful!
Our trees have been going crazy this week to. 50 gallons of sap each day since Saturday. We found someone to collect for us the last two days as we dont need the sap. Pulling the taps tonight after they collect again. Slow start this year but it went nuts in the end. Also a late year compared to the last few. We ended up with a little over 10 gallons of syrup. This has also been our 1st year selling syrup. Sold 40 pints very fast. So now its time to clean up and plan for stepping up my game plan for next year. Bigger cooker, RO system, larger storage tank for sap, maybe add 10 more taps. I must be nuts.
18 gallons per day for Monday and Tuesday. hope it can keep doing that through the week and pull taps this weekend before boiling Saturday.
So now its time to clean up and plan for stepping up my game plan for next year. Bigger cooker, RO system, larger storage tank for sap, maybe add 10 more taps. I must be nuts.
I’m joining you with a reverse osmosis system next year and adding more taps. I’ve been doing a lot of research on RO and I can’t wait to change to that process next year. When factoring in your time with long boils with the old fashioned way, the cost of an RO system pays for itself pretty quickly. Just curious, do you know what type of RO system you are getting?
No I dont Jake. My plan is to get a new cooker 1st. Get that set in my shed by this fall with a stock pile of wood cut and drying. Ad a storage tank or two in there. Then mid winter when nothing else is going on work on the RO.
Its always good to have plans. What gets done is another story.
Just curious if anyone would want some sap to try making syrup with. Ive already made way more than I wanted to. Ive been at about 26-27 to 1. I collected about 22 gallons today if someone wants it bring a container and pick it up. I live in Belle Plaine. I will take taps down tomorrow and you can have what I get from tonite and tomorrow too.
Well I got something and it is pretty good despite what I read about my particular trees. Thanks for all the advice! Not sure I would do this again unless I get something better than a turkey fryer (even 2 was slow). I hit a point where I was done despite having lots of sap left.
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very impressive light color tindall! that’s some great looking syrup.
Nice job! I am going to boil about 90 gallons Saturday and we will see what the trees do after that, I have no buds yet and sap is looking great still so I figured I will keep it going until the sap goes sour.
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